"Make no mistake, this was an election budget... The purpose was minimum cost, maximum political impact: to shore up the Labour vote, reassure Middle England's waverers, attract new voters and neutralise the opposition. Michael Howard's Tories had been setting the agenda. The chancellor's job was to win it back. That he was able to... was as much a triumph of his political skills as his sure touch in economic matters. He turned a political setback - less to give away in pre-election largesse than he or Mr Blair would have liked - into an advantage by insisting he would adhere to fiscal prudence rather than give away money he could not afford...

"Unlike Mr Blair, he enjoys a reputation for trustworthiness that was enhanced by [his] budget performance. How can he possibly be moved, except to the prime minister's job?"

Peter Riddell Times, March 17

"[Wednesday's] measures were economically irrelevant but politically finely judged. Seldom has a chancellor packed so many electoral sweeteners into so small a fiscal package. He moved seamlessly from a memorial to Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother to community service for young people. Every conceivable group was offered something, except pet owners. Is Mr Brown anti-dog?...

"The big question remains about how the Brown and Blair approaches [to the election] are aligned. Negotiations are still under way about the role Mr Brown will play in the campaign and on the wording of the Labour manifesto, particularly pledges on taxes... Mr Brown showed again how indispensable he is to the campaign. Labour needs Mr Blair and Mr Brown to work together."

"For the past few weeks Mr Blair has been fighting the opposition on rough terrain: immigration, asylum-seekers and crime are all issues on which the Tories can score points. Mr Brown pulled the argument back on to his territory: the economy, investment in public services, and tax credits. If it was only 'the economy, stupid', another swingeing Labour majority would be a foregone conclusion. Mr Brown has a good story to tell - unemployment still falling, low inflation and mortgage rates, sustained increases in living standards. He never tires of telling it...

"Treasury officials have given up all pretence of objectivity in their presentation of the budget measures. What used to be called the Red Book now reads like Soviet-era party political propaganda. But that cannot hide that many of Mr Brown's measures are not redeemable until 2006 at the earliest."

Daily Telegraph Editorial, March 17

"Labour strategists will argue that dull predictability is Mr Brown's unique selling point. They may hope that the electorate has come to feel safe with him and the low, stable inflation he has brought with him. Unfortunately, that is the only achievement of Mr Brown that is undisputed.

"[On Wednesday], he seemed like a concert hall performer whose best performance was years ago and is now reduced to performing the same old stunts every year: once more, the long lists of selectively chosen statistics about the economy's performance and, yet again, the usual bung for pensioners... We have heard it all before.

"Labour MPs cheered, of course, and the prime minister grinned gamely. But as a vote-winning pre-election budget, this was a damp squib. Mr Brown boasts he is giving a £200 rebate to pensioners on their council tax bills. Thank you, Mr Brown. But pensioners have been around long enough to know that their council tax bills only came to be so big in the first place under Labour."

John Rentoul Independent, March 17

"The budget decisions were fraught with political risk for the chancellor. And, because he is so much the heir apparent, the risk was all on the down side. Hence the caution, a caution so cleverly judged that it was almost exhilarating. Instead of the dramatic pre-election giveaway talked up by commentators, he engaged in targeting pre-emption. He neutralised the potentially most effective Conservative ploy... by simply buying up half the council tax subsidy for pensioners that Mr Howard had offered.

"But no wonder the rest of the budget was so predictable - and predicated. Mr Brown was and is in an impossible position. If he said anything interesting it would have been interpreted to death within seconds for its implications for the state of Blair-Brown relations."

Simon Heffer Daily Mail, March 17

"While Mr Blair was smiling at the unifying effect of this budget on his party, and its vote-winning potential, he would not have been human had he not glimpsed the vultures circling over him. It is a long time since he had such a reception in the Commons on an important issue as Mr Brown did. The contrast between his chancellor's popularity and his own is now stark...

"If Labour's majority is substantially reduced on May 5 - as the opinion polls suggest - then Mr Blair's position will be perilous and Mr Brown's chance could be nearer than many imagine."